Dirty Deals
by YourOneShotWonder
Summary: There in black ink on charmed parchment: the announcement he prayed his mother was wrong about; that which would put a stopper on all other plans he had made for the next two years. He had only met his half brother once, but in that short affair he made a vow. Never would Alexei Zabini, the bastard of the family, come into any power. He just never thought he would require a heir.
1. Chapter 1

Blaise Zabini was a man of many achievements.

Witch Weekly had voted him most attractive wizard of the century at age 20. He became a renowned potions prodigy under the tutelage of many great potions masters, not including the amateur Horace Slughorn.

Not to be forgotten of course, since 18, featuring as his youngest and greatest accomplishment- the start of and growth of an empire he secured under his belt in the fairy dust trade. While it was not illegal, it was a greatly frowned upon substance for magic folk to take and for that it became taboo and extremely difficult to acquire. That was before Blaise became involved with the trade shortly after the war. Looking for something to make the days brighter in light of his best friend's death, he discovered fairy dust from some Italian squibs. The rest as they say is history. His empire spread across the continent, with the only rival distributor lying in the Bulgaria.

He had everything: money, power, fame (the ministry was proud to call him a wizard for his numerous charities for orphans of the war).

However, according to his mother there was one thing he was missing in his life. The joys of a baby wailing and the pitter patter of tiny feet across the manor's cherry floors. According to his mother, something he had to acquire in the next year or else his older bastard brother would be coming to collect his fortune.

_Dear Mr. Zabini,_

_While it has been my pleasure to serve your family these past 50 years it is with great hesitation I deliver this news. According to your father's final will and testament the Zabini fortune will be available to you on your 25th birthday on one condition, you have an heir by this time. If you do not meet this condition then the fortune and all its titles will be given to your elder half brother, Alexei._

_Mr. Zabini, if I were to be so forward I suggest you find yourself a bride or surrogate mother as quickly as possible. According to my sources, your brother has the strongest addiction to gambling I have ever witnessed. I fear if the fortune falls into his hands the Zabini name will be tarnished beyond repair and sentenced to a life of destitute._

_If you acquire any assistance, it would be my honor to assist you._

_Valentine Terra_

_Legal Adviser to the Zabini Family_

_Florence, Italy_

There it was, in black ink on charmed parchment. The announcement he prayed his mother was wrong about; that which would put a stopper on all other plans he had made for the next two years. He had only met his half brother once, but in that short affair he made a vow. Never would Alexei Zabini, the bastard of the family, come into any power. He just never thought he would require an heir to do so.

Where would he find a witch willing to give him a child on such short notice? A witch who knew and accepted the fact that he was the leader of the fairy dust trade? A witch that his social status obsessed mother would be content to call the next Lady Zabini?

As if the Bulgarians weren't causing enough problems.

Recalling his father's advice in his final letter "if brandy cannot fix the problem my boy, nothing can".


	2. Chapter 2

**_I own nothing except my plot and rights to the fairy dust ring._**

"What do I do?"

"I do believe the better question is not what but whom" Draco sniggered from the rafters of Hogwarts. It had taken him a few years to adjust to the fact that he would be spending an eternity as a seventh year ghost in Hogwarts. The first year was rather miserable for everyone listening to his snivelling and Myrtle's lashing at anyone who dared peek.

After reading the letter from his family's age old legal counselor, Blaise had apparated immediately to Hogsmeade with only a quick stop into the Three Broomsticks to purchase a bottle of brandy. From then on he rushed to the castle and began hollering for Draco to "get his ectoplasmic arse over here". It had taken all but an hour before Blaise had every little detail laid out for Draco. He needed advice; good advice and with a dead, ghostless father and a socialite black widow for a mother, his dead best friend seemed like the best source.

Clearly a faulty decision on his part, Draco had become quite the comedian in his afterlife.

"Draco, my entire fortune, everything Zabini is in risk if I don't get the next witch I see pregnant essentially. You don't know Alexei like I do. Right bastard he is. We cannot let him get it." Blaise growled out, just the thought of his half brother with the Zabini fortune aggravated him to the point he had to break something. Sadly enough, it had been his hand initially when he punched a knight statue in his first mentionings of his half brother.

"The way I see it is you have to get a witch too stupid to care. Shag her, bag her, get the kid, divorce her once you get the titles to the fortune," Draco laughed as he floated down and hovered over the library table. It was times like these Blaise wished he could just get the slap on the back he used to get from his friends, but in times like this, when your best friend was a ghost any contact became an icy cold blast through his body.

"What else can I do besides that? You know my mother is going to want the girl to stay with us till death. I can't just get someone to throw through like a quaffle through the ring for some points. I don't even need a pureblood, my father didn't care, mother just wants the money. The Zabini's staying pureblood just happened that way." Exasperated, Blaise collapsed into the nearest chair holding his head with one hand and pushing the bottle of brandy to his lips with the other.

"You need to stop drinking so much. I get everything is going to hell, mate, but there is no need to tip back a whole bottle everyday." Draco floated in front of his friend passing his hand through Blaise's causing the bottle to go crashing to the floor. Blaise was about to say something but Draco beat him to it, "Look if you need someone to really help you, talk to Granger. Lord knows she can help any charity case that comes to her, even you. McGonagall was talking to the Oaf the other day, turns out Granger is staying in muggle London. Just use the point me charm."

Sighing heavily, Blaise stood from the chair and began walking towards the doors, it wasn't a bad plan, ever since the war Granger had been as involved in charities as Blaise had been. Maybe she knew someone who would be interested, maybe that girl with the two colours for a name. Maybe.

"I'll see you soon, mate. Tip back a Felix Felicis maybe instead of the hard stuff, it just might get you farther with her." Draco shouted before rushing towards the bookshelves and disappearing through them. Feeling the weight grow heavier on his shoulders Blaise continued out of his former school. Making a list, he figured he'd stop at an apothecary somewhere, Godric and Salazar knew he would need all the luck he could get.


	3. Chapter 3

Granger- Apartment 7-6.

That's what the label read and next to it laid a small blue button and a grate in the wall. It had taken him an hour to find the apartment complex that laid just on the outskirts of London. Muggles were so foolish in their technological advances he discovered. A good witch or wizard knew anything was applicable with magic, dark or light, and the creation of muggle like devices would only lead to the sure destruction of self. He couldn't begin to understand the logic of the cars that they all seemed to be operating. Loudy, bulgy, destroying the ground and quality of air. A horse was a much more logical choice environmentally, economically, and spatially. Clearly not good enough for muggles, nothing seemed to ever be.

He couldn't understand why Hermione Granger would leave the magical world for this one, regardless growing up in it. However, he didn't have time to ask, he only had an hour to explain his precarious situation to the witch. Vladimir Dobrev was not a patient man in matters of business.

The second door in the building just beyond the wall of names and apartment numbers was locked and he had figured it would be unsafe to draw his wand for an alohomora charm. He had spent the last ten minutes trying to shake it open before another muggle woman came up behind him with a sneer on her face. Brushing past him she pressed one of the many blue buttons on the wall and when a voice chimed "who is it?" she merely stated Allyson before the door swung open quickly enough for her to get in and quickly enough to keep him out.

Maybe the button was the code to get in, along with an identification similar to the many wall entrances in Diagon Alley. There was only one way to find out before he wasted too much time.

When he pressed the button it wasn't the voice from before but instead it was Granger's voice asking for identification. For a moment he felt his blood chill with the realization that most of his hopes lied with Hermione Granger's philanthropic ideals.

"Hello? I don't have all day, who is it?" she asked again, her voice slowly taking on an agitated tone.

Finding his voice he cleared his throat before standing straight in front of the grates the voice coming from. "Blaise, Blaise Zabini."

The tiny lobby suddenly felt much cooler as he waited for her answer.

"Can I help you?" Her voice sounded terrified at this point under the gryffindor bravado, once a lion always a lion he supposed. She wasn't going down without a fight.

"To be frank, I'm praying you can."

"Come on up then."

* * *

Not trusting the elevator enough to take it, Blaise raced up all seven floors to Hermione's level. The dark walls appeared water stained and gave an air of burnt tobacco. Surely a war veteran of her status could afford something far better than this life.

When he arrived at the door with some tarnished numbers and the six falling off he couldn't help but wonder further what had Granger living in such circumstances. What possessed Weasley and Potter to allow her to live there?

Knocking twice the door soon swung open to reveal Hermione Granger.

Blimey, it had been a while. This girl wasn't what he expected Hermione Granger to look like at age 26 While her body only changed the slightest amounts, her face was like staring at the dead. Pale, with her eyes surrounded by harsh black circles, her left cheek had the slightest coloring of an old bruise.

"Are you alright, Granger?" he spoke cautiously, this didn't appear at all to be the girl he knew from Hogwarts. "I can come back another time." He couldn't really, unless he managed to find a fully functioning time turner.

"I'm fine, come in. I was just brewing some tea and pepper up potions. Can never have enough of either of them, can you?" She said leading him into the kitchen where a tea kettle and cauldron both swung over a magicked fire mantle.

"Actually you can, frequent doses of Pepper Up potion slowly begin to deter the body's ability to fully use its own immune system. Addiction to Pepper Up. Saint Mungo's sees it all the time in teens and war veterans." The look she was delivering him offered the idea that she did not appreciate his commentary at all. "Sorry."

"Its quite alright. Now, what can I help you with?" Pouring the tea into two mix matched mugs he watched as she dropped the tiniest cube of what he figured was the candied form pepper up potion in her drink.

"I can only put this as bluntly as possible but it will sound crass, chauvinistic, possibly slightly despicable depending on your opinion." He took a long drink of the tea, noting in the back of his mind the strangeness that she had a foreign herb like Checkel for everyday tea. "I need to find a girl to have my child and that child be born in the next twelve months. I'll marry her, pay her, she can live in my manor, whatever she wants, I just need a child or else I lose my fortune to my brother."

Her reaction wasn't what he anticipated, it appeared much of life wasn't going how he thought it would anymore. All she did was raise one eyebrow and continue drinking the rest of her tea without pause. When she finished the cup she didn't meet his gaze either, she just kept her vision trained to the inside of her mug but she spoke timidly and if he wasn't mistaken either, he could have sworn she was shaking slightly.

"Is this you asking me to bear you a child, Zabini? I expected more tact from a pureblood of your status." The venom in her words was lost in the shaking of her voice.

"Heavens no! No! I don't mean it like that either. I shouldn't have listened to Draco, git has always led me wrong." He began pacing in the confined space of the small kitchenette, every so often running a hand through the minimal length hair he had. Then a thought came to him "Wait, does that mean you'd be willing?"

"My life has changed drastically since Hogwarts, Zabini," she sighed putting her mug in the sink "and at this point in my life I'm willing to do just about anything to get away from my current predicaments. If you're willing to have a half blood child and love it just as much as any pureblood child, I'll accept your offer. However, I require some favors and compensation before anything."

"Anything, anything at all I'll do it for you. I cannot even explain the gratefulness I'm feeling right now. What is it that you need? Anything."

"I need you to kill Ronald Weasley."


	4. Chapter 4

_**I do not own anything except my plot line and the occ demeanor of JK Rowling's characters. I apologize for the late update, my power went out :(**_

Blaise had heard many words shaking things in his life. He heard the avada that had killed his best friend Draco on the battlefield. He heard his father choke to death on his own blood as he stood helpless to the side, an unbreakable vow preventing him from helping the elder Zabini. He heard the eardrum shattering scream Voldemort emitted when Potter reversed a Crucio back to him and the Sectumsempra that had followed soon after that.

All of these things left him temporarily stunned for a few moments, he couldn't move a centimeter, his breathing stopped each time, and he didn't blink for what seemed to be the longest amount of time. He thought some of life's most traumatic events would be behind him, how many other shocking things would he have to hear in life?

Being involved in underground criminal activities like the fairy dust trade gave him many...contact opportunities for whatever sort of job he would need done. So far he had run an honest business, no blood money had ever been spent, no killing over substance the public so desperately craved, just barter or buy off. He wanted to avoid bloodshed, it would make his trial cleaner for the rare instance that he would be caught and put on Wizengamot trial.

He never thought he would have written a murder request to an Italian family who owed him a favor for supporting them. It was to be quick, clean, and concise with only the tiniest hint of self mutilation. A typewritten note had been left explaining the ordeal as a suicide caused by guilt for the life Weasel had been living for the past few years. No one had suspected a murder after a coroner had found traces of the polyjuice potion in the body or the sudden fact that Harry Potter did not seem to appear around Diagon Alley or the ministry anymore.

Hermione explained it all to him after The Daily Prophet had published the article.. After her explanation he was positive that if there was a man who deserved to die for his treachery it was Ron Weasley.

Harry Potter had actually died during the war, the explosive spell he had created to kill Voldemort had thrown them both back deep into the Forbidden Forest. Both bodies had been missing for several hours, McGonagall lead the search party of survivors to find their beloved hero sure he was alive. Hermione and Ron found Harry, shouting for joy at his body laying on the ground, just figuring he was injured, she had run over to him and turned him over and screamed. A quaffle sized hole emptied out Harry's chest from the explosion and the boy who lived became the boy who died.

Except no one knew that little detail. While Hermione cried in grief over her friend, she had failed to notice Ron placing the enchantments that they had used while on the run all over the surrounding area. When she asked him what he was doing he turned on her, silencio-ing her and delivering the body binding curse as well. She watched in horror as Ron tore out almost all of Harry's hair and stuff them in his pocket. After that he spent half an hour burning the body with a charged incendio.

There was nothing left to the boy who lived.

Blaise wondered how someone could do this to their best mate's corpse. He would be downright suicidal for doing that to any body of the person who trusted you. It was a heinous act which should be punishable by the kiss. However, Hermione also pointed out she didn't believe Ron was himself at all, literally. She had researched into his behavior the past few years and was convinced that Ron had been put under a permanent Imperius curse by a loyal Death Eater.

That was only a part of the reason Hermione wanted Ronald Weasley dead. After the body had been burned to nothing but ash and the ashes spread in the wind, Ron had accio-ed a polyjuice potion from the castle with great might. Mixing Harry's hair into it he transfigured an owl into a second Ron and placed it under an Imperio. When that was complete he drank the potion and became the Harry Potter everyone had been seeing for ages. He covered his tracks though, kicking Hermione's wand away and positioning her one arm into a stiff handshake of his own, he un-froze her and stuck his wand to her throat. His threat, death right then and there, his bargain, she would live if she made an unbreakable vow to never speak or write to anyone what he had done.

She gave into the vow feeling ignominy burning in her chest and since then Ronald Weasley had been living Harry Potter's life. He collected royalties from the ministry and spent the late James' and Lily's inheritance on a lifestyle Harry deserved to have had after the tragedies he had been a part of.

Regularly he would check on Hermione though to make sure that she had not broken the vow or given it thought (he was a dolt, if Hermione broke the Vow, she would have died). Whenever she felt the courage to stand against them, gaining the courage to die to reveal the truth, Ron would beat her into submission. A revelation to the bruises all over her that he had seen.

Hermione didn't reveal any of this until after the murder, once the co-swearer of the vow was dead she had be free to speak. She explained everything to Blaise when the Daily Prophet published the article including a copy of the letter she had typed (while under a polyjuice of Ron so fingerprints couldn't even be swayed) explaining everything that had happened in the past years. Blaise said he would do anything for Hermione's help. Murder was included if she saw it fit enough to happen. Though when he found out the reasons he realized two things. One, Hermione believed that both her best friends were dead, Harry literally, and Ron's soul was broken and corrupted by the Imperious she theorized he was under. It was a mercy killing in the end. Two, if he had known any of the information beforehand, he would have had Weasley ripped apart by dogs for harming Hermione, healed by the best healers in the world and then killed.

After Weasley's small funeral, the family had begged Hermione to tell them it was all a lie. Outraged she feuded with them over the truth that had been happening behind their backs all these years, disgusted they couldn't tell the difference between their son and their near adoptive son's behavior. She was estranged from many people now, either certain people felt guilty for not seeing the signs or they resented her for some reason they couldn't even explain right themselves. The golden trio died out overnight and all that was left was a broken girl ready to start all over.

That's where Blaise had stepped in. They sold her apartment and all her possessions that she didn't wish to move with. They bought her a new wardrobe, healed all her bruises young or old, and prepared her a room in the manor. Blaise's mother approved of her wholeheartedly, kissing Hermione's cheeks and running off in Italian how grateful she was to the young girl and how beautiful her 'grandbabies' would look.

In light of the Ron's death and the truth that it delivered a majority of the public refused to condone anything Hermione did, including publically dating Blaise. It had been a month since their first outing and they only had eleven months left to have a child before the fortune was left to Alexei.

Which led up to where they were now.

In a potion's lab in the east wing of the Zabini estate, Blaise and Hermione were tirelessly working over the strongest fertility potion they could manage. If they brewed it correctly, it would be near impossible for her to not be pregnant. There was a high chance they could have twins as well due to the potion, they tweaked it with a spell to ensure no more than two children could be conceived. Hermione drew the line at the idea of more than two screaming newborns at three in the morning.

"Do you think it's done properly?" she whispered after finishing the final stir. He shrugged and reached over for a ladle. He poured some into a small cauldron and walked across the room to his herb bench. Three seeds of Valerian root would be his test, according to his old potion mentors Igor Kruscow, the best way to test a fertility potion was to see if a plant would grow from it. He included the test in the letter, simple and slightly humorous as he was known to be: "Throw the seeds in! If they grow in the cauldron, a child will grow in the woman you want."

"I suppose we'll find out now, come behind the shield. I'm floating these into the sample, no need to be in the way of an explosion," he grabbed her around the waist and pulled them both behind a magically reinforced plexi glass. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Carefully he floated the seeds into the cauldron and when they were levitating perfectly over it he took a cursory glance at Hermione. She had eyes only for the test, she was enthralled and he didn't think he could catch her attention if he tried.

"Finite Incantatem."

Nothing happened and both their shoulders sagged at a lack of the plant growth. He absentmindedly rubbed her shoulders and was about to walk out from behind the glass when the cauldron shook and fell off the work table and rolled towards them. The mouth of the cauldron faced them and inside of it and slightly pouring out were thousands of the little white caps that Valerian root was a famous for.

Hermione's squeal of delight near ruptured his ear drum as she ran over to him and practically threw herself like a bludger into him. He balanced them before they fell over and chuckled.  
That was the easy part though.

Now came the strange part: sex with Gryffindor princess Hermione Granger.


	5. Chapter 5

I could never and will never own Harry Potter or any of its characters/names/places/etc. However I can own certain things I can make up like weird herb names or potion gimmicks. But seriously. I'm just a fanfiction writer, all glory goes to JK Rowling.

Staring up at the ceiling of his room Blaise couldn't help but feel ashamed.

For the life of him, he could not remember the night prior or anything past their discovery that the fertility potion would work.

He was hoping that Hermione wouldn't remember so that they could both say they didn't remember their first and potentially last time. They weren't dating, the month they had spent publicizing their relationship was so to ease the general public into the surprise they would hopefully be getting in the next month. He wasn't worried about the general public though, that was Hermione's first thought along with the vengeful quill of Rita Skeeter. His worry was the Weasley family, namely Ginerva who had been so enraged when Hermione revealed what Ronald "never would have done to anyone" she tried to cut Hermione's face with a slicing charm.

He could only imagine the feelings of betrayal the family would surmise between the whole lot of them.

But for now that could wait; Hermione was beginning to wake up.

Staring down at her, he took in close analysis the woman who would be carrying his child. It seemed that adulthood served her well as she grew into her hair and learned how to tame mass of it with some key nut oils. She had told him that during her time at Hogwarts she had grown so sick of the teasing about her buck teeth that she had her parent's file them down for her. She just didn't smile with her teeth showing much afterwards. And like everyone else in cold, dark England she was as pale as the sheets covering the furniture in his father's old room. Hopefully her time in Italy at his manor would reflect on her skin kindly.

He was lucky, Hermione was by no means ugly—not to say she was an ethereal beauty either. She was pretty and he was handsome, by which he figured his children would live up to their parent's features.

"Blaise?" she moaned, he was pulled from his thoughts as he focused in on the witch pressed up against his side.

"Yes, Hermione?" He grabbed her upper arms and helped her sit upright more, her head though stayed lolled to the side with a sour look on her face.

"Why did we drink so much brandy? I feel like the awkwardness would have been settled after one glass not eight. I can't remember a thing past raiding the cabinet."

Merlin was a kind man to the wizard in need, indeed.

He couldn't help the smile that crept its way onto his face. "I wish I could tell you, but you're the one who insisted on the instant refilling charm."

"I don't know why you listened. Do you have any Pepper up potion?" she sighed as she pushed her face into his chest, breathing in his scent deeply as if to preserve it in her memory.

"I thought we talked about the Pepper up potion, Hermione. You need to stop taking it. It's for minor sick days or the occasional restless night. Not a tea sweetener or morning chaser." He scolded her, trying to pull her off his chest so he could go get her the proper potion she would need, his own modified version of the hangover potion.

"Fine, but I just need something for my head, I feel like I'm going to fall over and pass out any second now."

Eventually he managed to pry her off him and lay down again while he went to his workshop. He hadn't had a hangover since Draco's third deathday anniversary. He hadn't known his best friend was a ghost yet, he had refused to go inside Hogwarts after the war. So he had just walked around the field and valleys of the school with a bottle of firewhiskey in hand and a bottle of brandy and a flask filled with schnapps shrunk down in his pocket. They found him by the black lake, a puddle of vomit next to him and raving about his head being about to explode.

"So when can I expect my grandbaby?" caught his attention, coming up the steps into his wing was his mother dressed in feathers and diamonds. He wish he had the heart to tell her she looked ridiculous, but the fashion of Prague superseded his opinion these days. In her hands he saw the two small vials he was going to retrieve in the first place.

Rushing down the steps to his mother, he took the vials and shoved them in his pocket. "How'd you know I needed these?"

"Sweetheart, please. Rarely any arranged marriage gets its first night consummated without the help of a little drink or two. Goodness knows your father and I raided a liquor shop on the way from our reception. Now, my grandbaby, when can I make the announcement?" She smiled sweetly, Signora Zabini wasn't a woman to ignore, once a husband began to ignore her, her claws would come out and soon enough he would be dead.

"When we make the announcement in a month or so, you can throw a party. Is that adequate enough of a deal to sate your thirst for attention?" he grumbled as she tugged on his arm as they walked up the steps.

"Oh my son, you think so harshly of me. I just want to know so I can rub it in Aurora Greengrass' face that I am clearly the better decorator of nurseries." She smiled happily to herself, gazing up to the ceiling, perhaps seeing Daphne's mother huffing and cursing about losing yet another claim to his mother.

"Mother, I think what I know, and I know you crave blood sacrifice from the woman of pureblood society. It's what you do best in your free time."

"Perhaps, perhaps. Now, instead of idling outside your room like a couple of fools, why don't we invite your lovely bride down to breakfast?"

Agreeing with his mother, Blaise reached towards the door handle when it and the whole door shattered. His mother and he were thrown against the back wall and throwing her a quick glance he noted she seemed to be okay.

"Hermione! What happened?" He shouted, drawing his wand and making his way cautiously into the room.

"Get him away from me!" he couldn't see where she was, the dust was too thick in the air but he could see another body pressed into the wall.

With his wand armed and a curse ready on his lips Blaise cautiously approached the figure; behind him he could hear Hermione scrambling out of wherever she was and hear her curse his bed when he assume she walked into it.

"Who dares attack my home and more intimately, my chambers? Do you have a death wish? Do you know who I am?" he growled out, the dust was still covering the body in a silhouette and with no response Blaise wasn't going to wait out the day for a surprise attack. His arm shot out and latched onto the shoulder of the intruder and yanked him out of the wall. Blaise let the body fall to the floor and he climbed over it and kept his wand pointed into their back.

"Hermione, what happened?" he asked, from the corner of his eye he could see his mother was charming spare bed curtain ropes into chains as Hermione stood defensively by her, all motions of any hangover gone.

"I was coming out of the bathroom and he just apparated in front of me with his wand drawn. He lunged at me and I didn't have my wand on me. I screamed instinctively reducto and I knew nothing was going to happen, but the spell worked!" he raised his eyebrows at her, he would have to check that nothing hit her head, reducto wasn't a spell that worked with wandless magic. It wouldn't work unless she possessed high levels of magic or a talisman to boost it. He knew both weren't the case, but right now he had more important matters to deal with.

"Let us see whom the fool of the year is to try and break into our home." Hermione half smiled when Blaise met her eyes as he said 'our'.

With a quick shove, Blaise rolled over the body and jabbed his wand into their face.

By Merlin's left tit he couldn't believe it.

Vladimir Dobrev sent his own son to -more likely than not- assassinate him.


	6. Chapter 6

_Insert generic disclaimer. I own nada except what I make up._

The world was full of fools, it was a common and accepted fact; one Blaise knew all too well in his trade. While he had never ordered anyone killed, he always left his men to punish those who dared try and cross him within acceptable means. No forbidden curses and to never leave a lasting mark, not a single drop of blood was ever spilt in his trade. Every underling he had brought into his empire had taken a wizard's oath to follow those orders.

It was almost like he was doing the public a favor. Preventing forbidden curses and bloodshed one fool at a time.

In all the fools he had met those in his life he had never seen one as great as Vladimir Dobrev for sending his only child on an assassination mission. Nonetheless a fifteen year old boy with barely any knowledge of the world except vanity and pride.

"Hermione take my wand, if he so much as twitches I want you to stupefy him. Once he is secured in the parlor we can relax." The wards on the parlor allowed no one to exit or enter the room without Blaise's verbal confirmation and his presence in the room." Mother, send a fire call to Lucius, he has always been better at legilimency than me." Blaise grunted, as he swung the unconscious body of Nikolai Dobrev over his shoulder. Making sure Hermione still had his wand and his mother already scurried from the room he began his trek down into the parlor where most of his business negotiations took place.

"Lucius is on his way!" his mother voice echoed from her study. The house elves were racing around Hermione and him trying to make preparations, breakfast and tea for the guest and master and mistresses of the house. They paid no heed to the limp body in his arms, they knew better than to interfere when the young master was protecting the house.

"Excellent." Hermione raced in front of him to open the doors and once she moved from the entrance, Blaise threw the body to the ground. The boy was coming into his features, he looked like Draco if Blaise imagined enough. Sharp features, neck length blonde hair –much like the Weasley twins had his fourth year—, and pale skin. The boy looked nothing like his dark featured father.

Wandlessly summoning a vial, Blaise ripped out a few of Nikolai's hair and stored them. Then he banished the vial to his study with flick of his wand as he took it from Hermione.

"Why would you do that?" she asked him, still hovering behind and peering over his shoulder at the boy who tried attacking her.

"I make it a part of my business to store as many hair samples I can of people in my business. You never known when you may have to take matters into your own hair." He murmured, wrapping his arm around her shoulder he drew her close and placed a gentle kiss on her temple, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I was just more stunned to see him than anything. Is your house always this cold in the morning?" she sighed leaning into his embrace.

"We live in front of the ocean, Hermione, and winter is coming; here in Ancona, winter can get quite cold." He chuckled leading her away from the parlor, locking the door with a password based spell he began walking her down to the kitchens, "Would you like me to have the fires made hotter?"

"If you didn't mind, the house feels like Hogwarts at Christmas right now. You look perfectly content with the temperature right now and you're barely wearing any heavy clothing."

"I've adapted, I've lived here much longer than you have. Besides, if I can survive the temperature changes here and in Scotland during the winter, I should be alright." Hermione hit his side chuckling as the entered the dining room. But she stopped moving as soon as she saw Lucius sitting with his mother drinking tea and having breakfast.

Blaise took note of her sudden physical shut down, but decided to leave it for latter. Walking them both over to the table, he put Hermione in her seat and then walked over to Lucius and shook his hand, "Thank you for coming on such short notice."

Lucius nodded at him and quirked his eye towards Hermione, she was staring at him frozen in her seat as Signora tried to get her to eat something. "It is the least I could do for you. Your mother says you have intruder but she refused to give me any other details besides that. What's happened?"

Blaise explained that young Nikolai had broken into the estate and somehow managed to apparate into his room and attack Hermione. Lucius agreed on his theory that it was an assassination attempt on Blaise's life by the Bulgarians, but also couldn't find the reasoning for Vladimir sending his only child on a dangerous mission as such.

Vladimir was a curious man, very apt at potions and dark magic, with those two skills he had managed to make a potion to withstand the effects of Veritaserum. That was the reason Blaise had called over Lucius, the only way to get answers was to invade Nikolai's mind when he woke up.

Throughout breakfast Hermione had barely eaten, a single slice of toast and a cup of tea that his mother prepared for her was all that she would touch. During the entire meal she would barely take her eyes of Lucius, and it left both men very wary of what was going through her mind.

His youngest house elf, Flora, apparated in the doorway and asked for permission to enter the room with the masters and mistresses. Once the formality was granted, the infant sized elf scrambled up to Blaise and tugged on his pant leg and quickly told him that "the bad wizard has woken up, sirs. Dori and Gia had to make him float to get him to stop moving and breaking sir's room."

"Mother, why don't you take Hermione on a tour of the gardens while we deal with Nikolai? I forgot to harvest the cherry wart, if you two could gather it and send it to the study I'd greatly appreciate it." Blaise stated more than asked as Lucius and he left the room. Both women looked slightly perturbed about the mundane task but didn't say anything. It was for their own good though, he didn't want anything happening to his mother in case Nikolai should lash out. He only had her left in his family right not. Hermione. Hermione was a whole new situation, he would be keeping her safer than the Queen's jewels for the next year and he couldn't trust the situation right now to allow her to come in.

"Of course, dear. Once we finish with that I'll be taking her into Ancona to see Madame Termini, goodness knows we could use some new insight on the future." With that Signora stood from the table and pulled Hermione from her seat and brushed past them and towards the garden while explaining how Madame Termini had predicted Blaise's birth three years before she met Lord Zabini.

"Shall I ask why she is here or is there something for another day?"

"She is my girlfriend, Lucius, she is allowed to my home when she pleases." Blaise offered, hoping that Lucius would just leave it at that.

"Do you know why she looked at him as if I was going to rip her throat out with an accio charm?" they stood in front of the door hearing the young Dobrev cursing Blaise's name from inside.

"That I plan on finding out later, let's deal with this now though," Blaise said as he pushed open the doors to see Dori and Gia under Nikolai staring at the young wizard throw a tantrum in the air.

"You bastard! You said she would be unarmed!" Nikolai shouted pointing a finger at Blaise. " And now you have your elves floating me like a forsaken puppet! Wait until my father hears about this!"

"Doesn't that sound familiar?" Blaise heard Lucius murmur under his breath.

"What do you mean _I_ said she would be unarmed?" Blaise growled out using drawing his wand and releasing the young Dobrev from the elves' spell. Nikolai fell from the air and landed straight on his face before quickly shooting up and lunging at Blaise. Lucius however in that time sent him the body bind curse at the young blonde causing him to collapse face forward on the ground.

"Don't play coy with me, Zabini. You know exactly what you said to my father the other night!" Nikolai growled out from his spot now on the floor.

"I haven't seen your father in over two months, Nikolai and that was just for business the elimination of a mutual threat."

"You're lying." Nikolai sounded less confident now though as he looked with Blaise with nervous eyes.

"You know I'm not, either your attempting to lie to save yourself or someone is pretending to be me. We can't have either, can we? Lucius, if you don't mind." Blaise said narrowing his eyes down at the youth.

"Of course not." Blaise could tell when Lucius entered Nikolai's mind immediately, the boy started twisting his head back and forth and clenching his eyes and teeth. Lucius's face remained calm and collected, the only sign he was even performing the mind reading spell was that his eyes were closed.

After a few minutes, Lucius opened his eyes and they turned to Blaise with hatred and confusion.

"You were there, whether that was truly you or not is another matter entirely. You asked Vladimir Dobrev to assassinate the woman they would find in your room. You offered two hundred pounds of Brazilian pixie dust for the job to be done. The one foolish thing that Dobrev had not realized was the poly juice was wearing off as they were talking."

"Did you see a tattoo on my neck then? A small x on the left side." He prayed that the neck was bare, if it wasn't— well then his and Hermione's life would have just exceeded a whole new level of danger. One he wasn't sure she'd be prepared for.

"Yes, why?"

"That's my brother, Alexei. It seems he knows what is happening and he is trying to save his chance through blood."


End file.
